A NASA-led study tracks changes in atmospheric ammonia concentrations in Africa from 2008 to 2018, revealing rises and falls in ammonia emissions linked to agricultural activities. The research highlights the need for sustainable agriculture practices to mitigate the impact of growing populations on food security.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will harness the power of cross-checking techniques using its rich data set to study critical questions in cosmology, including cosmic acceleration. It will also explore additional mysteries such as dark matter and black hole growth.
A NASA study published in Nature Food projects that climate change will affect crop yields as early as 2030. Maize yields are projected to decline by 24%, while wheat yields could increase by 17%. The changes are due to rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and elevated carbon dioxide concentrations.
The discovery suggests a long-term presence of a water vapor atmosphere only in Europa's trailing hemisphere. This finding advances our understanding of the atmospheres of icy moons and paves the way for future studies of Europa by probes like NASA's Europa Clipper mission.
The Hubble Space Telescope and ALMA have discovered six early, massive galaxies that have run out of hydrogen gas to form stars. These 'dead' galaxies, which appeared in the universe just 20% of its current age, were found using strong gravitational lensing, a technique that amplifies light from distant objects.
Astronomers predict a supernova, dubbed Supernova Requiem, will reappear in the sky around 2037. The rebroadcast is expected to be visible through advanced telescopes, providing an opportunity for scientists to study its behavior.
Astronomers discovered that comet ATLAS shares the same orbital track as an ancient comet from 1844, suggesting it's a sibling from a parent comet. The comet disintegrated while farther from the Sun than Earth, defying conventional wisdom about comets.
A NASA model describes Kappa 1 Ceti, a 30-light-year-away star with similar mass and surface temperature to our young Sun. The study sheds light on what allowed our Sun to foster life on nearby planets, including Earth's atmosphere and the development of biological molecules.
Scientists have identified potential locations for pieces of lunar mantle fragments using NASA's lunar sample analysis and observations from the Lunar Prospector and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. The South Pole-Aitken basin is a likely candidate due to its depth of excavation, which could provide insights into the Moon's ear...
The Lucy spacecraft is carrying a time-capsule plaque featuring messages from prominent individuals to humanity's descendants. The plaque contains words of advice, wisdom, joy, and inspiration from Nobel Laureates, United States Poet Laureates, and other inspirational figures.
Scientists use NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite 2 to map subglacial lakes under the West Antarctic ice sheet. The study reveals two new lakes and provides critical insight into freshwater exchange, which may alter ocean circulation and ecosystems.
Researchers developed a method to identify areas with smoother waters as indicative of microplastic presence, leveraging CYGNSS satellite data. This technique demonstrates the potential for tracking ocean microplastics from space.
The Hubble Space Telescope's payload computer halted in June, causing science data collection to stop. The team is investigating various hardware pieces, including the Command Unit/Science Data Formatter and power regulator, as possible culprits. They will continue assessing hardware for a week before recommending fixes if necessary.
Scientists will use six distant quasars to study galaxy evolution, supermassive black hole formation, and gas in the intergalactic medium. The team will examine the properties of these quasars and their host galaxies during the first stages of galaxy evolution.
Researchers used NASA data to map PM 2.5 levels across China, Europe, and North America during the pandemic. They found seasonal differences driven primarily by meteorology, not lockdowns, but did see a significant reduction in nitrogen dioxide emissions.
Scientists confirm NGC 1052-DF2 has only a few percent of expected dark matter content. The discovery using Hubble Space Telescope observations suggests that the galaxy formed in an environment with unusual properties, leading to its isolation.
The SnowEx team studied snowpack in diverse environments, collecting data on snow depth, density, temperature, and reflectivity. They also tested how well various techniques can measure snow using drones, airplanes, and ground-based remote sensing tools.
The new LHASA Version 2 model analyzes terrain, rock characteristics, weather, and climate to produce customizable nowcasts of potential landslide activity in near-real time. The model factors in soil moisture and snow mass data to improve accuracy.
The Roman Space Telescope will create massive infrared images, 200 times larger than Hubble, with exquisite resolution. The 24 flight-certified detectors will enable scientists to explore vast celestial objects and phenomena.
Roman will study thousands of type Ia supernovae across vast distances to pin down dark energy and understand the universe's expansion history. The mission aims to clarify discrepancies in measurements of the Hubble constant, which describes the current expansion rate.
Astronomers use Hubble to pin five FRBs to host galaxies and identify their origins as young magnetar outbursts. The study provides new insights into the nature of these powerful events, which generate energy equivalent to the Sun's in a year.
Astronomers will use the James Webb Space Telescope to study a region of gas and dust in the Orion Nebula called the Orion Bar, which is shaped by intense ultraviolet light from young stars. The team hopes to understand how massive stars influence their environments and even the formation of our own solar system.
The world's largest and most powerful space science telescope, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, has completed a key milestone with the fully expanded and locked primary mirror.
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first-ever direct image of a giant exoplanet, PDS 70b, which is feeding off material surrounding its young star. The observations provide a unique look at radiation from extremely hot gas falling onto the planet, allowing scientists to estimate how fast it's gaining mass.
Astronomers capture breathtaking images of AG Carinae, a luminous blue variable star surrounded by a glowing halo of gas and dust. The star is in a constant battle to maintain stability due to its massive form and super-hot temperatures.
The cryosphere plays a vital role in regulating global climate, and NASA studies its changes extensively. Scientists have reported dramatic ice sheet losses in Greenland and Antarctica, causing sea levels to rise by 0.55 inches over 16 years.
A new NASA visualization reveals the hypnotic pas de deux of two orbiting black holes, distorting and redirecting light from their accretion disks. The system's unique features, including relativistic aberration and Doppler boosting, create striking images of each black hole.
A global science collaboration using NICER data discovered X-ray surges accompanying giant radio pulses from the Crab Nebula's pulsar. The finding shows that these bursts release dozens to hundreds of times higher total emitted energy than previously estimated.
Engineers successfully folded NASA's James Webb Space Telescope sunshield, a five-layer diamond-shaped structure to fit within its launch vehicle. The compact form will remain through launch and the first few days in space to protect optics from heat interference.
The discovery of four double quasars offers insights into galaxy formation and the evolution of supermassive black holes. Quasars are brilliant beacons that can outshine entire galaxies, and their proximity in merging galaxies provides a unique window into the early universe.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will perform a final flyover of asteroid Bennu, capturing high-resolution images and collecting data from the asteroid's surface and science instruments. The mission aims to understand the extent of the disturbance caused by the sample collection event.
The NASA Hubble Fellowship Program has awarded fellowships to 24 postdoctoral scientists to pursue independent research in astrophysics. The selected researchers will focus on three broad scientific questions: How does the universe work?, How did we get here?, and Are we alone?
Researchers studied 304 developing stars and found that gas-clearing by a star's outflow may not be as important in determining its final mass. The team's results indicate cavities in the surrounding gas cloud do not grow regularly, suggesting another process gets rid of excess gas.
Astronomers have studied the rare RV Tauri variable U Monocerotis, a binary system with two stars orbiting within a sprawling disk of dust. The 130-year dataset reveals predictable brightness changes and X-ray emissions.
Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a distant planet, GJ 1132 b, that may have lost its atmosphere but regained a second one. The team believes the current atmospheric hydrogen is being slowly released through volcanic processes to form a new atmosphere.
Scientists used ICESat-2 to track water level fluctuations in Earth's lakes and ponds over 22 months, finding natural lakes and ponds change by 8.6 inches seasonally, while reservoirs fluctuate nearly quadruple that amount. The study also revealed regional patterns of variability in reservoirs.
A wayward comet-like object has been spotted near a family of captured ancient asteroids, called Trojans, orbiting the Sun alongside Jupiter. The object shows signs of comet activity, such as a tail, outgassing, and an enshrouding coma of dust and gas.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured stunning views of Venus during its close flyby in July 2020. The onboard Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow.
Researchers linked a high-energy neutrino to an object outside our galaxy, tracing it back to a black hole tearing apart a star in a rare cataclysmic occurrence called a tidal disruption event. The findings provide insights into how these phenomena work and challenge previous expectations about when and how neutrinos are produced.
A short-lived resurgence in CFC-11 emissions in eastern China will not delay the recovery of Earth's ozone layer, according to new research. The AGAGE network helped track down the origins of the new emissions, which were found to be largely coming from eastern China.
Astronomers have discovered three hot worlds larger than Earth in the Pisces-Eridanus stream, a collection of young stars. The planets, TOI 451 b, c, and d, are expected to retain much of their atmospheres despite intense heat from their nearby star.
Astronomers have found a concentration of smaller black holes at the center of the globular cluster NGC 6397, contradicting the long-held assumption of an intermediate-mass black hole. The discovery was made using Hubble data and Gaia space observatory measurements.
NASA engineers developed Fast Maneuvering (FastMan) algorithm to enable LRO to keep exploring the Moon, allowing for nearly 200 additional slews that couldn't be performed otherwise. The algorithm improves performance by using star-tracker measurements and other information available from LRO's flight computer.
The Roman mission will use microlensing to detect exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy, uncovering thousands of worlds similar to those in our solar system. The survey will also reveal extreme planets and planet-like bodies, including hot Jupiters and brown dwarfs, thanks to their gravitational tug on stars.
Scientists have gained new insight into the solar structures that create the Sun's flow of high-speed solar wind. Using NASA data and cutting-edge image processing, researchers discovered plumelets, smaller strands of material within solar plumes, which shape the solar wind's characteristics.
Astronomers have traced the speedy shrapnel from a nearby supernova blast to calculate its location and time, yielding an estimated explosion age of 1,700 years ago. The researchers used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and analyzed visible-light observations made 10 years apart.
Astronomers confirm that a recent burst of high-energy light was triggered by a magnetar located in a neighboring galaxy. The finding confirms long-held suspicions about the connection between gamma-ray bursts and magnetar activity.
Astronomers have discovered a distant galaxy that erupts roughly every 114 days, creating a 'cosmic Old Faithful'. Using data from NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, scientists studied repeated outbursts of an event called ASASSN-14ko.
The Roman Space Telescope will enable new science in astrophysics by imaging an area 100 times larger than Hubble with the same crisp sharpness. It could reveal new insights into star formation during the universe's youth and galaxy clustering, as well as study the early universe and cosmic dawn.
Researchers found prebiotic organic molecule hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) in three carbon-rich meteorites, validating theories of its role in forming organic compounds. HMT is thought to be a stable source for ammonia and formaldehyde, which can form other important biological molecules.